I move: That Dáil Éireann approves the exercise by the State of the option or discretion under Protocol No. 21 on the position of the United Kingdom and Ireland in respect of the area of freedom, security and justice annexed to the Treaty on European Union and to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, to take part in the adoption and application of the following proposed measure: Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing the Union support for asylum, migration and integration for the period from 2028 to 2034, a copy of which was laid before Dáil Éireann on 14th August, 2025. My thanks to the House for facilitating these motions, which were debated in the Seanad earlier. The Government today approved the request of the Minister, Deputy O’Callaghan, request to seek the approval of this House to opt in to these EU Commission proposals. They are being taken together as they form part of the multi-annual financial framework, MFF, package. The MFF is the European Union's long-term budget plan that sets the annual spending limits for various policy areas over a seven-year period. The motions today relate to proposals on justice and home affairs financial instruments, namely, the asylum, migration and integration fund, the internal security fund and the justice programme fund. These funding streams are already in existence and the proposed regulations will extend them for the period 2028 to 2034. Protocol 21 applies as the measures have Title V legal bases and an opt-in under Article 3 is recommended so Ireland can continue to utilise funding made available under the programmes. On the proposals themselves, the asylum, migration and integration fund proposal will establish a new asylum, migration and integration fund for 2028-2034. It provides for a total amount of €11.9 billion in EU funding, which represents a significant increase from the €6.2 billion provided under the fund between 2021 and 2027. This increase reflects the aim for a collective response on asylum and migration across the Union. Funding can be drawn down to support member states' implementation of the EU pact on asylum and migration and to support member states’ capacity to manage and respond to asylum, migration and integration challenges. Ireland participated in the previous two iterations of the fund, covering the periods 2014 to 2020 and 2021 to 2027, as well as in the two comparable funds that preceded it, namely, the European Integration Fund and the European Refugee Fund. Under the current programme the fund provides a range of supports for international protection applicants, programme refugees, beneficiaries of temporary protection and other third country nationals arriving in Ireland. This funding assistance also supports the State’s ability to fund a wide range of NGO-led migrant integration programmes and funding also covers certain aspects of the Irish refugee protection programme and the returns programme, which are managed by our Department. In line with work progressing on asylum and migration issues at EU level, the new fund will contribute to the specific objectives including enhancing effective, safe and dignified return and readmission and strengthening and developing legal migration to member states. It will also contribute to enhancing solidarity and fair sharing of responsibility between the member states, including through practical co-operation, innovative methods and new technologies. In a similar vein, Ireland has benefited from participation in previous iterations of the EU internal security fund and the proposed regulation is to establish that fund for the 2028-2034 period. It provides for an indicative amount of €6.8 billion, which is a significant increase from the €1.9 billion provided under the current internal security fund running from 2021 to 2027. As this House will know, in recent years geopolitical instability has impacted greatly on the EU and the threat picture facing the EU is stark. Security threats continue to evolve and such threats are increasingly cross-border in nature, which necessitates closer co-operation between member states. In its conclusions in June this year, the European Council recalled that serious and organised crime, terrorism, radicalisation and violent extremism - both online and offline - represent a major threat to European citizens and the security of member states. As we know only too well, Ireland is not immune to this. The European Council also called on EU institutions and the member states to mobilise all available resources at national and EU level and to take further action to strengthen law enforcement and judicial co-operation. The indicative increase for this fund reflects the priority afforded to protecting the Union’s internal security. Informed by ProtectEU, the European Commission’s new internal security strategy, the overarching objective of the internal security fund is to ensure a high level of internal security in the EU by enhancing operational law enforcement co-operation and the exchange of information between member states and relevant EU agencies such as Europol. Grants may be provided for activities that include development of national and EU-wide information systems, joint operations between cross-border and national authorities and training, education and acquisition of equipment and support in the development of new technologies and processes. Examples of beneficiaries of the programmes implemented under the fund may include national police, customs and other specialised law enforcement services, non-governmental organisations and local public bodies. Any measures with a military or defence purpose are not eligible for support under the internal security fund. Funding provided under the current Internal Security Fund has enabled investments in IT systems from which Ireland has benefited including, among other things, Ireland's connection to the Schengen information system, the establishment of Ireland's passenger information unit and the enhancement of the automatic number plate reading system in Garda vehicles. The third fund listed for this debate is the justice programme fund. As with the two previous proposals, this proposal is a continuation of previous iterations of the programme, namely, 2014 to 2021 and 2021 to 2027. The programme intends to establish a fund of a total of €798 million over seven years. Member states can draw down from the fund for transnational projects which promote the adherence to the rule of law and fundamental rights, support and improve access to justice, support judicial training, and support the proper funding of independent judicial systems. Some examples of Irish projects that have been funded under this stream include a Tusla project to improve access to child-friendly justice, protection and recovery for child victims and their families through Barnahus - the child-friendly, multidisciplinary model to support children who may have experienced sexual abuse - and a court-based victim and witness support services project to build knowledge and provide tools to deliver quality court-based support services for victims and witnesses of crime. Funding for these types of projects should continue under the new programme and it is important Ireland continues to support and participate in these programmes. The European Judicial Training Network, of which the Judicial Council of Ireland is a member, is funded under the justice programme. This network brings together judicial training institutions from around Europe to develop and implement training for judiciaries. It is important Ireland continues to support the work of this independent training institution. Furthermore, the programme aims to support projects improving efficient civil and criminal procedures and funding may be made available in relation to procedural safeguards in European arrest warrant proceedings. I am strongly of the view that Ireland should participate in the adoption and application of these proposed measures. In doing so, Ireland will continue to benefit from financial assistance in order to have funding available for projects supporting the implementation of the EU pact on asylum and migration, for enhancing law enforcement co-operation between EU member states, and for projects which seek to improve access to justice for all citizens and businesses. From a procedural point of view, our agreement to participate in these measures will also enable Ireland to have a say in their final content. Participation will lend weight to any policy positions that we may take during the negotiation process and allow us to maximise our influence on the final shape of these proposals. I commend the motions to the House.

Sentiment score: 0.37

I thank all speakers who contributed to this debate. If you listen to the range of contributions, you will hear wide and varied differences in the views and opinions being offered. For me that reflects the complexity of the whole issue of immigration and migration. There are very little solutions and lots of criticisms, which I can accept but it is the job of Government to try to manage migration and immigration. Before doing so, I restate that immigration has had positive benefits for Ireland. Both I and the Government acknowledge the great contribution migrants have made to Irish society. I reject some of the characterisations of actions and decisions by Government to try to deal with and manage the issues. Our strategy will have to look at our future needs over the coming decade but we still want to see people migrating to Ireland. We cannot ignore that our population is increasing at a significant rate. Our population is growing at approximately 1.6% per annum, which is seven times the EU average. We need to try to slow down that rate of increase. Last year about 185,000 people entered the country. They entered the country, migrated into our country or returned to our country. I will give a breakdown. Approximately 12,000 of the 185,000 were on employment visas, 32,000 were people who came to work here from other EU countries or the United Kingdom and 60,000 people entered on student permits. We had approximately 23,000 people through family reunification. We had 18,500 people who claimed international protection. We had another 10,000 who claimed temporary protection and we had approximately 30,000 people who were Irish citizens returning from abroad. That is just to give context and a backdrop. On the three motions I moved and spoke to earlier, we are already participating in and benefitting from these EU funding streams. Government has no hesitation commending the motions that we opt into these proposals which are laid before the House. By doing so, under an Article 3 opt-in it will ensure that we are at the table with our European partners involved in the detailed discussions from the beginning. I remind any Deputy with reservations on parts of these measures that they are at the initial stages of discussion. Officials from my Department will be working closely with their counterparts as the work progresses to tweak aspects to better fit with our system. I commend the three motions to the House.

Sentiment score: 0.18

I move: That Dáil Éireann approves the exercise by the State of the option or discretion under Protocol No. 21 on the position of the United Kingdom and Ireland in respect of the area of freedom, security and justice annexed to the Treaty on European Union and to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, to take part in the adoption and application of the following proposed measure: Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing the Union support for internal security for the period from 2028 to 2034, a copy of which was laid before Dáil Éireann on 14th August, 2025.

Sentiment score: 0.55

I move: That Dáil Éireann approves the exercise by the State of the option or discretion under Protocol No. 21 on the position of the United Kingdom and Ireland in respect of the area of freedom, security and justice annexed to the Treaty on European Union and to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, to take part in the adoption and application of the following proposed measure: Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing the Justice programme for the period 2028-2034 and repealing Regulation (EU) 2021/693, a copy of which was laid before Dáil Éireann on 29th September, 2025.

Sentiment score: 0.54